seed potato...an odd request

[jimg]

I know this is an odd request but I thought some one might be able to help. I've done, what I believe, to be pretty complete net searche but came up empty so...

A number of years ago during a visit to Romania I had occassion to eat potatoes (lots in fact). These were the best I had ever tasted bar none...Yukon Gold does sort of come close though. I think they were Romanian producted b/c everyone used them...from the place we stayed to McDs...and Romanaian isn't a wealthy country able to import items like this. So, I would like to find out what varieties they grow there and what would be close thats raised here or exportable to to this country. Can anyone help?

BTW I did try to ask this question over there but my hosts were mostly ag challenged and hadn't a clue. On a side note we attended a couple local markets and visited various farms during the visit and I was amazed at the varieties of vegs for sale. The cabbages were amazing...huge!

 

[GRUMPA]

Well I'll have to ask some of the guys at my work. About 25 or so are from Romania and hardly speak English. I've asked them about crops from their country before but our wording for things in this country are way different than theirs. I'll ask tomorrow and I'll post what I find out. On a side note when they go their for a visit they always have lots of picture to share. I'm always asking about the stuff they grow there, and I ask them if they ever had any problems growing stuff.

I live in the desert and things can be rather hard to grow here, but where they come from the ground is so darn fertile they don't have a problem growing anything. They would tell me that when they just squeeze a tomato and let the seeds just fall onto the ground that all they had to do was cover the seeds with dirt and before you know it their would be a tomato plant.

 

[jimg]

Perfect! Thanx very much for looking into this for me.

I visited the western half of RO and its mostly flat like the eastern side of Hungary...I think its called the european plain or something like that. Its one of the routes the Russians would have used to invade the rest of europe. Ag is the mainstay of the area in both countries.

The crops I saw at market were amazing in size and color. I believe they don't use much (any?) in the way of pesticides or prepared fertilzers. All of the commie era commune farms we saw were idle, overgrown and littered w/ rotting equipment -- its just small mom/pop farms now I think.

 

[GRUMPA]

OK here it goes,

I might as well have asked them what there favorite colors were, when I asked them about the potatos in Romania I got some rather funny looks. Beleive it or not most of them came from the same area you described earlier. They for the most part said that they grow the same stuff you can get here in the states. All except for 2 of them that were hard core farmers.

The name I got out of them was "CARTOFI" pronounced car-tofe. They both said that is more than likely the type your refering too. Here's a link I found for the cartofi potato just hit the word legume on the left and there you go. Hope this helps. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jimg]

Thanx! Cartof is the RO word for potato. What did the 2 hard core farmer types say about what they planted? The link you gave is great, I didnt see that one in my travels. It turns out the Bintje is what the Belgians use primarily for making their particular brand of fries (called pommes fritzes...I think I got the spelling of that right).

Hey, thanx a million for asking...I really appreciate it!!!!

If its true that varities are the same between here and RO then the taste must come from the soil...which would be hard to duplicate. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[GRUMPA]

<font color="blue"> What did the 2 hard core farmer types say about what they planted? </font>

I asked them the very same question, they were right there together so I hit them up with the same question at once killing 2 birds with one stone so to speak. They both looked at each other and both said the same word Cartofi /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. I had them spell it for me and so I thought that was the variety. I asked them about the seeds for the potatoes and they thought I was nutz /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. When they were their it was still very much a communist type of a set up, with that came poverty and their weren't any seeds they just sectioned off the potato and planted it.

I asked them about the fertilizer they used and they said that it was stable refuse from the cows and horses. But one come up and said he was also using the pigeons droppings. Seems after growing season they would just pile all the droppings from the animals in one big pile, and just before planting time they would load it all up on a horse-drawn cart and spread it around. Seems in Romania soup made from very young pigeons were the equivalent to our chicken soup. So most of the folk that lived out in the villages for the most part had alot of pigeons for that purpose.

 

[jimg]

LOL...wished I could have witnessed that....Im laughing right now. Im sure they couldnt quite get their collective minds around the question. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Why on earth would someoone ask about potatores. Oh well...I REALLY do appreciate you having a go at this..VERY much. Yes, cartof is their word for potato. I suppose its not too surpriseing that they didn't have an idea of the variety. RO is a fairly economically depressed country and you make do w/ what you have mostly.

As to fertilizer its not surprising that they used what was available. Checimal fertilizer is pretty expensive and no one had the $$ for it.

I noticed that few farms were very large, only a few hectares on avg. Very few had $$ for a tractor and either used horses or the family car w/ a trailer to harvest. We were there during the end of Sept/early Oct and harvest was in full swing. Its funny (sort of) to see a little Dacia zipping down the road w/ an over loaded trailer of corn stalks twice as big as the car and trailer. BTW drivers over there are SCARY...very SCARY!! I hunted for the brake on the passenger side more than once...which our driver thought was hilarious. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

TheRO govt along w/ the Russians really raped RO during the cold war era. Our hosts told us all sorts of stories that made your hair stand on end. In fact we visited not long after the collapsed of the commie govt and the police followed us everywhere. They made sure to let us know we were being followed and watched. That said to say even those living on farms during that time were on the edge of starvation most of the time. It was illegal to take anything from the farm produce unless the govt gave it back to you. Most went to Russian and the other commie block countries.

 

[jimg]

BTW...I did visit a farmer that owned a Roamnian made tractor, a Brasov, which looked pretty well build and very heavy. It had all the things youd expect to find in the expected places. There were no frills of course. We also saw an old Deere too but Im not sure who that belonged to.